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"When is this sexualfantasy going to get interesting, Brad?"
in USA Today which noted that an
alarmingly high number of soldiers in
Iraq and Mghanistan had been hospi-
talized for mental illness. Drugs merely
mask mental distress, he said, whereas
"Scientology will solve the source of the
problem." The medical and pharmaceu-
tical industries are "prime funders and
sponsors of the media," he said, and
therefore might exert "influence on peo-
ple telling the whole and true story
about Scientology just because of the
profit motive."
Scientology has perpetuated Hub-
bard's antagonism toward psychiatry. An
organization that the church co-founded,
the Citizens Commission on Human
Rights, maintains a permanent exhibit in
Los Angeles called "Psychiatry: An In-
dustry of Death," which argues that psy-
chiatry contributed to the rise of Nazism
and apartheid. The group is behind an
effort "to help achieve legislative protec-
tions against abusive psychiatric treatment
and drugging of children." (Paul Haggis
has hosted an event for the organization
at his home. His defection from Scientol-
ogy has not changed his view that "psy-
chotropic drugs are overprescribed for
children.")
Jastrow, in his back yard, told me,
"Scientology is going to be huge, and it's
going to help mankind right itsel[" He
asked me, 'What else is there that we can
hang our hopes on?"
"That's improving the civilization,"
Archer added.
"Is there some other religion on the
.......-... .
. .
horizon that's gonna help mankind?" he
said. 'just tell me where. If not Scien-
tology, where?"
A rcher and J astrow found their way
into Scientology in the mid-sev-
enties, but Tommy Davis was reared in
Archer's original faith, Christian Science.
He never met L. Ron Hubbard. He was
thirteen years old on January 24, 1986, the
day Hubbard died. Although Davis grew
up amid money and celebrity, he im-
pressed people with his modesty and his
idealism. Like Paul Haggis, Davis was
first drawn to the church because of ro-
mantic problems. In 1996, he told Details
that, when he was seventeen, he was hav-
ing trouble with a girlfriend, and went to
his mother for advice. Archer suggested
that he go to the Celebrity Centre. After
taking the Personal Values and Integrity
course, Davis became a Scientologist.
In 1990, Davis was accepted at Co-
lumbia University. But, according to the
defector John Peeler-who was then the
secretary to Karen Hollander, the presi-
dent of the Celebrity Centre-pressure
was put on Davis to join the Sea Org.
Hollander, Peeler says, wanted Tommy
to be her personal assistant. "Karen felt
that because of who his parents were, and
the fact that he already had close friend-
ships with other celebrities, he'd be a
good fit," Peeler said. 'Whenever celeb-
rities came in, there would be Anne Ar-
h ' " A fi D . . d " H
c er s son. t rst, aVlS reslste. e
wanted to go to college," Peeler said.
That fall, Davis entered Columbia.
He attended for a semester, then dropped
out and joined the Sea Org. "I always
wanted to do something that helped
people," Davis explained to me. "I didn't
think the world needed another doctor or
lawyer." Archer and J astrow say that they
were surprised by Tommy's decision.
'We were hoping hè d get his college ed-
ucation," J astrow said.
Davis became fiercely committed to
the Sea Org. He got a tattoo on one arm
of its logo-two palm fronds embracing
a star, supposedly the emblem of the
Galactic Confederacy seventy-five mil-
lion years ago. He began working at the
Celebrity Centre, attending to young
stars like Juliette Lewis, before taking on
Tom Cruise. David Miscavige was im-
pressed with Davis. Mike Rinder re-
called, "Miscavige liked the fact that he
was young and looked trendy and wore
Armani suits."
Paul Haggis remembers first meet-
ing Davis at the Celebrity Centre in the
early nineties. "He was a sweet and bright
boy," Haggis said.
Davis's rise within Scientology was
not without difficulty. In 2005, Davis was
sent to Clearwater to participate in some-
thing called the Estates Project Force. He
was there at the same time as Donna
Shannon, a veterinarian who had become
an O.T. VII before joining the Sea Org.
She had thought that she was attending
a kind of boot camp for new Sea Org
members, and was surprised to see veter-
ans like Davis. She says that Davis, "a
pretty nice guy;' was subjected to exten-
THE NEW YORKER, FEBRUARY 14 & 21, 2011 107